Peter's tuna day - without me!

Finally got Peter to write up some trip notes on his Tuna Day (without me! have I said that before?)
here it is.....enjoy!
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Got the disappointing news on Friday that my usual fishing mate, Swoffer Darwin, would not be joining me Saturday for a day on the water.  The missus is away and I just can’t sit at home and twiddle my thumbs - so I figured, I can ‘go it alone’.  

I had a look at the BOM METEYE and found that the wind might be in my favour for a good part of the day.  I also heard the ol’ fishing bloke on 104.9 say that he thought Lee Point would be good given the tides, water clarity, etc.  

Got all my stuff together and set out about 6:30am.  Turns out my boat is just small enough to manage on my own.  It was a bit of a struggle without any help but no worries.  On my way to the launch I realise I’m low on flies.  I think to myself, could the Stig be up?  Of course he’s up, he has two kids under 6.   So I text him and then head off to fuel up.  The boat’s had the same fuel in it for months, have to mix with new before going out.  While fuelling, Stig answers the text and I head straight for his place to pick up a donation of ½ a dozen flies, to go with the other dozen he’d already gifted me.  I have to get my tying room set up toute de suite. J

The run from Dinah to Lee Point was mostly calm and uneventful, with the exception of a bit of uncomfortable quartering sea, salt spray in my face between Cullen Bay and East point.  I then rounded East Point to thankfully encounter better wind/water conditions.

Arrived at Lee Point about 8:15am and set the electric anchor next to the reef.  There was plenty of visible bait in the water and soon after - the mackerel showed up.  Two of the flies the Stig had just given me were bit off almost immediately.  I tied a wire lead on the next one and landed two small Macks, probably 50 cm range.  Something bigger then hit and broke me off. 

I put on a surf candy and landed three more small macks, all of which were visible to cast to.  While fighting these small, fly stealing fish, I looked out towards Gunn Point and saw several birds about 800 - 1200 meters out.  

I watched this for several minutes before deciding that I better go and check it out.  While powering towards the birds and what looked like slashes, I could tell these were tuna!  My knees started to knock and the heart started pumping feverously.  

I got close to small schools of surface disturbing tuna on several occasions and did my best to follow the birds and slashing fish, jumping from helm to top deck each time I powered in close to them.  

It’s unbelievable how fast these creatures move from spot to spot. It had me wondering if it was the same fish after they’d move 600 meters in what seemed like a couple of seconds.  My tuna following tactics took me further west towards the hospital and I finally got right next to a 30-40 strong school of tuna within a cast length of the boat.  

I cast in front of 3 fast moving fish swimming within 15cm of the surface and watched one turn and grab the Stig’s green and white heavily weighted clouser.  I lifted the rod like any good Canadian would and off it went, burning a line into my left index finger as I tried to get the line off the floor without any tangles. It hit the reel with about 50kgs of start-up inertia and I was into my backing in what seemed like a nanosecond.  yeeh haaaah! (note from editor: read that with a huge Canadian drawl) 

I tried to tighten the drag and got knuckle busted pretty good.  It ran hard into the backing a couple of times and then stopped on a dime on the 3^rd run and started coming back at me as fast as it had left.  I tried to pick up line with my Bauer Jr Mac but all of a sudden it turned and went away again.  I felt it tighten up again and pop, it was gone.  

Disappointment set in and I started wondering what I’d done wrong.  After a couple seconds of deep, analytical brain function, I figured it was my Canadian style trout lift/strike that had resulted in a poorly set hook.  Dang!

So with the vigour associated with semi-success and the feel of the power of these fish, I got back at it and started chasing again.  I chased and chased but couldn’t get close after several attempts.  

I had a dark-side rod along and started looking at it longingly.  Assuming that I could get a jig into them from much further away I broke all my own personal, purist rules and picked it up.  All of a sudden, there were tuna everywhere around the boat.  

With dark side rod in hand, I flicked the jig, hooked up briefly but it came off.  The fish remained close to the boat so I picked up the fly rod again.  The line had been out on the floor and was tangled from the wind so I was unable to cast and all of a sudden, it all went quiet.  

Realising that I was more than able to get close enough for the fly, I put the gear rod away.  I continued to chase what appeared to be groups of 20 or more tuna and I hooked up to 3 more fish on the surf candy and another big minnow pattern I tried, none of which stayed on the line for more than 3-5 explosive seconds.  

I was getting very frustrated and then things died off completely. No more fish.  I thought for sure that I’d missed the opportunity but was happy that I’d been into one good one and a couple of brief hook-ups.  I anchored again and the tide started to turn. 

An hour or so went by without much in the way of sightings.  

The tide was now moving out and I could see a few birds further in towards Buffalo Creek/Shoal Bay.  I motored over to see what it was, assuming packs of small Queenies as we’d seen here many times before.  

To my surprise, it was multiple packs of tuna in what appeared to be 30+ strong schools.  These fish seemed more aerial and aggressive than before.  I motored within a cast length and immediately next to the boat, 30-40 tuna were hitting bait and splashing everywhere, not caring that I was there.  

I put a cast in front of 2 particular fish, stripped several times and both followed fast.  One grabbed the fly within 4 rods lengths with an amazing full side view.  

This time, I strip set the hook much more aggressively and off it went like a freight train in a tail wind.  After multiple tangles of the Rio Leviathan running line throughout the day, I totally panicked as the fish was tearing the line through my hand, unbelievably it all went out behind the fish and hit the reel with similar force of the previous fish earlier in the day.  

This time I could tell that the hook up with good and I played the fish out over approximately 20 mins.  It finally came close enough for the gaff and in it came.  What a moment of excitement that was, my first tuna on the fly!  

I leaned over and hit the button on the GoPro, mounted on top of the motor and held the fish proudly for a few seconds of video.   

Wow, talk about being totally frickin’ worn out and elated after all that.  After calming down, having a cold drink and catching my breathe, I realised that I’d actually been into at least 7 tuna thus far, fortunately having landed one. 

The fish continued to bust up in several places within about 3 square kms.  I followed a couple schools, got close once more but the running line tangled as I tried to put a cast into them.  I cursed and vowed to send Rio a strongly worded e-mail about their shitty, bailing wire running line.  

All went quiet again and I motored back to the tip of the reef where a couple of boats were anchored.  I saw some good fish movement close to the reef so thought I’d anchor there and make some late lunch.  The anchor came on and I laid out a long cast adjacent to the reef.  Just as the line landed on the water, 11-12 tuna swam next to the boat and right under my running line.  

Holy crap, it was amazing to see them in formation like that.  I stripped fast as….but couldn’t see where they’d gone by the time the line came in.  I motored around on the electric and saw some nervous water about ¾ of a cast away.  

I put a cast into the middle of it, strip strip strip and the line came tight very quickly.  I was on again with a great fish.  I followed it out to deeper water assuming it was a trevally after it had gone into my backing twice.  The tide slowly drifted us back towards the reef and I set the anchor about 8 boat lengths to a small tinnie with two local blokes in it.  

They watched closely, wondering what I’d hooked on to. The fish showed itself and it was a bigger tuna.  It circled the boat about 15 times, I horsed this one more aggressively because I was running 30 pound Maxima off the nail knot.  

He had so much power I couldn’t get him close enough to hand.  After 20 or more minutes, I was about to get into gaff position and it did one more pump out past the electric motor, which was on anchor at this point.  All of a sudden, a huge shark, which I’d estimate to be in the 3+ meter range, came up and hammered the tuna right in front of the boat.  I let the pressure off hoping it could swim away but the line went slack and the cut leader came in with no fly attached.  What a moment that was.  Both the guys in the tinnie went mad with excitement having just watched that shark attack. 

Totally spent after the long day and the shark incident, I decided to pack it all in.  I had 8 tuna on in one day with one in the esky so I was satisfied to quit at this point.  Fish were still busting up all over the place, which was hard to turn my back on but it was now 4:30pm and I had 20+ km run and a boat to clean up and put away.  I’m guessing but I think I sighted as many as 150 – 200 tuna within 4 boat lengths throughout the day.   Boy oh boy, it’s great to be home!

 Peter 

Editors note:

and next day he gets into the big bad ass queenfish (93cm his newest PB)

and he said "I will just drive the boat today!!"